Desert Jewels ride drama to Netball World Cup

Namibia’s Desert Jewels have qualified for the 2027 Netball World Cup in Sydney after a night and day of drama at the Africa Cup in Nairobi.

After losing their final pool A match 55-33 against South Africa on Wednesday, Namibia finished second on the log in pool A on six points, while South Africa finished on top on eight points, and Zimbabwe third on four points.

Uganda finished on top of pool B on eight points after winning all their matches, followed by Malawi on six and Kenya on four points.

According to the tournament’s original fixtures, Namibia was then due to play the pool B winners, Uganda, while South Africa would face Malawi in the Africa Cup semi-finals, but on Wednesday night the tournament organisers once again changed the fixtures by promoting the pool winners South Africa and Uganda straight to the Africa Cup final tomorrow, while the second and third placed teams in both groups would then play off in world cup qualifying semi-final matches today.

According to that directive, Namibia were scheduled to face Kenya in the first qualifier semi-final at 11h00, while Malawi were scheduled to face Zimbabwe in the second semi at 13h00.

The changes to the fixtures were criticised by Netball Malawi who sent a letter to Africa Netball, as well as World Netball to seek clarity on the additional world cup fixtures and to ascertain whether they adhered to World Netball qualification regulations.

Namibia’s coach, Julene Meyer, meanwhile, says the changes deviated from World Netball’s rules for the competition.

“The problem is that the fixtures deviate from the rules, and last night they decided to change the fixtures for a third option again. Now there are no playoffs for the top four positions as stipulated in the rules, with South Africa and Uganda now advancing straight to the final,” she says.

“But this was not applied consistently because Namibia and Malawi, who were second in their pools, did not advance straight to the third place play-off for Africa,” she adds.

“The contradiction in rules and fixtures were queried on Friday before the start of the tournament and the feedback was that they will get back to us. But we only got that feedback last night in the early hours of the morning when we were informed that the fixtures were changed for a third time,” she says.

Yesterday, however, Meyer said Netball Malawi and Netball Namibia had challenged the new directives and sent a letter to World Netball and shortly after 16h00, they received confirmation from World Netball that their appeal had succeeded.

World Netball confirmed on its website that Namibia and Malawi had qualified for the 2027 World Cup.

“Following the conclusion of the pool stages at the Netball World Cup Sydney 2027 (NWC2027) Qualifier Africa, World Netball and Africa Netball can confirm that Malawi and Namibia have qualified to be invited by World Netball to compete at the NWC2027.

“In accordance with the NWC2027 Qualifier Africa Competition Regulations, the competition format determines that the top two teams from each pool advance to semi-final and final matches. On the basis of the pool results, this means that the top four teams in the semi-finals will be as follows: South Africa vs Malawi; and Uganda vs Namibia.

“Due to the fact that South Africa and Uganda have already qualified for the NWC2027, based on their world rankings as of 1 December 2025, Malawi and Namibia’s progression to the NWC2027 Qualifier Africa semi-finals means that they have qualified to be invited to the NWC2027.”

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